I had the pleasure of attending a three day
workshop with Mary Greer on this subject last year, so I went in
expecting to hear an abreviated version of that workshop. I was
quite pleased to discover that Mary covered all new material.
Mary started by reviewing the history of Tarot starting in 1771
with Comte de Gebelin. In the mid - 19th century (1850 - 1860),
Kenneth MacKenzie and Eliphas Levi Zahed were working with the
concept of applying Hebrew letters and astrology to Tarot. The
late 19th and early 20th centuries brought Papus, Wirth and
Waite-Smith. Mary discussed how Smith's training as a theatrical
set and costume designer influenced her Tarot artwork. The mid -
20th century (1945) brought the Crowley/Harris deck, which is
partly based on a personal mythology. The 1960's and 70's saw the
advent of the Jungian/Psychological Tarot. It was during this
period that Tarot mushroomed into completely new areas. In the
1990's, we have seen whimsical decks, computer generated decks
and readings, and a proliferation of personal decks.

Mary initiated a discussion on the impact of
the computer on Tarot. The possibilities of virtual reality and
interactive software were discussed. One idea I liked was a
concept made possible by mass storage - the idea of a software
program which would produce a deck by providing thousands of card
images allowing the user to pick which ones he or she wanted.
With inexpensive color printers, and the mass storage
capabilities of CD ROM, I am surprised no one has thought of this
before. Mary also shared her views on Tarot users as being
outside the mainstream for the most part. She feels that as the
normal predictive systems fail, people will turn more and more to
systems like Tarot. If Tarot becomes a part of the mainstream,
where will they turn?

Finally, we did a group reading using the
William Blake Tarot to answer the question "What is the
future of Tarot for the 21st Century?" A three card past,
present, future spread was used with oversized cards being drawn
by members of the audience. The cards drawn were:

Past - XV Error

Present - VIII Assessment

Future - XII Reversal

The group offered interpretations for each
card, which were written down. After all of the interpretations
from the audience were recorded for each card, Ed Buryn, creator
of this deck, provided his thoughts on the cards. It was quite a
lively discussion. As always, Mary got the old neurons firing off
in new directions and the lecture was the perfect way to end the
day's official activities.

You can get more information about Mary Greer
and the William Blake Tarot here.